If I said something to offend you over the internet, and you said it made you feel like hitting me, I would think it was no big thing, especially if you went on to explicitly clarify that you would never actually hit me. I would not perceive it as a serious threat in any case.
Really? My instincts anticipate a significant negative response if I said I wanted to hit someone around here. On the order of a substantial faux pas not a personal security risk. But to be honest I haven’t exactly calibrated that intuition all that much. Because I just don’t go around saying I want to hit people.
If another data point helps, I basically agree with you… if someone told me that what I’d said made them want to hit me, I’d consider it rude, possibly funny (depending on context), and not significantly changing my estimate that they would actually hit me.
Really? My instincts anticipate a significant negative response if I said I wanted to hit someone around here. On the order of a substantial faux pas not a personal security risk. But to be honest I haven’t exactly calibrated that intuition all that much. Because I just don’t go around saying I want to hit people.
If another data point helps, I basically agree with you… if someone told me that what I’d said made them want to hit me, I’d consider it rude, possibly funny (depending on context), and not significantly changing my estimate that they would actually hit me.
What sort of thing would change your estimate of whether someone would actually hit you?
Hitting me.
Hitting others.
Demonstrating poor impulse control in general.
Physically intimidating me (e.g., looming up in my personal space).
In general, someone using their words increases my estimate that they will continue using their words.